Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

We generally put automatic updates online every other month, but we upload the latest builds for download much more frequently. If you wish to force the update of an OutWit application (standalone or add-on for Firefox before v.43), simply load this page in OutWit Hub or Sourcer and click on the corresponding link below from within your v.7.x OutWit application:

FTP upload was added to OutWit Hub Enterprise in version 5.0 and enhanced in subsequent builds. The feature must be set at the macro level. We are currently addressing this in the new features for v6.0 so that the function can be used from the Export preview panel to upload to server(s) set in the Preferences. Don’t hesitate to suggest other FTP upload functions you might need, while we are at it.

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You can download the new versions from outwit.com. We will be waiting for version 5.0.1 before initiating a general update, as a few more features must still be added to the kernel, but we believe you will like the long-awaited features that this version brings: multiple-criteria selections in the datasheets, ftp upload of extracted data, ‘Find Selection in Source’ right-clicking on the page…

We have started the testing phase or v5.0. We haven’t had enough time to include all the features we had planned, so more goodies will come with v5.0.1. This version, however, brings a collection of functions that many users were waiting for (from a way to show items in the page and find them in the source code, to multiple-criteria selections in the datasheets). Several additional advanced directives allow to click automatically on objects or series of objects, populate queries from scrapers or compare links to explore with query directories, to decide which to skip or which to add, etc.

With this release, we simplified the version numbering system: All OutWit products based on Kernel 5+ will share the Kernel version number: Images, Docs, Sourcer and the Hub will all be 5.x

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Mozilla has decided that, from now on, all Firefox add-ons have to be reviewed and signed by them.
OutWit Hub, however, is no small widget. With more than 250k lines of code and 30 man-years of development effort, we have built a very powerful tool with extremely advanced Web exploration features. Their new review requirements and constraints do not match ours or the very purpose of the OutWit tools. Unfortunately we are not the only add-on developers in this situation and, like many others, because of this and Mozilla’s decision to fade out the XUL framework support, we will have to discontinue support of Firefox after version 42.
The simplest for you is to use the standalone versions of our products, but if you still wish to install our Firefox add-ons, you can either get an old version of Firefox (42.0) or allow www.outwit.com in the security preferences of Firefox and deactivate the signing requirement:

Type about:config in the address bar and change the preference named xpinstall.signatures.required to false.
…then answer yes to all alerts asking whether you really, really, really want to install it.

We are very sorry for this inconvenience.

[UPDATE] after version 44, the above preference will cease to function. The only option will then be to use an old version of Firefox or one of the special editions. Here is what Mozilla says on the topic: “The Developer Edition and Nightly versions of Firefox will have a setting to disable signature enforcement. There will also be special unbranded versions of Release and Beta that will have this setting, so that add-on developers can work on their add-ons without having to sign every build. To disable signature checks, you will need to set the xpinstall.signatures.required preference to ‘false’.”

We are very grateful for your help enhancing our products. Each report obviously helps us correct problems but, more importantly, through your feedback, you are constantly keeping us on tracks to make the application simpler, more pertinent and more powerful. Help us help you: to avoid going back and forth, trying to isolate the core information, this page lists the most frequent things we ask in return to our users’ messages. It has proved very useful and we’ll keep updating it.

READ THE FAQ— it solves 90% of issues.FAQ, troubleshooting info and tutorials are really helpful. (Seriously.)

Please read Help>Frequently Asked Questions before asking yours: The FAQ inside OutWit Hub and Email Sourcer are not just a general overview for beginners, they are actually an extremely useful list of tips with precise information, otherwise scattered across the Help.

The troubleshooting section of the FAQ, in particular, will give you the way to revert to factory settings if you are experiencing a new unwanted behavior of the application.

The tutorials built in OutWit Hub and Email Sourcer (Help>Tutorials) are also very useful and short. They only take a few minutes each and they cover all the main functions.

If you are experiencing difficulties accessing the online Help from the application, you can find a PDF version here. (Note that the PDF is not updated as regularly as the online help, so you should prefer the latter.)

UPDATE YOUR APPLICATION— even if you just downloaded.If you are using a current license or the free version, please make sure that you have the latest update.

(…and if you have an old license, it could be a good time to upgrade.)

SHOW RATHER THAN DESCRIBEIf you are having a problem, give us everything to reproduce it with a short, precise description.

do not write long blocks of text with complex descriptions of general processes,

determine where your issue resides and focus on this part:

– Here is WHAT I DO.
– Here is WHAT I GET.
– Here is WHAT I WOULD LIKE INSTEAD.

make sure you include the relevant URL(s),

include a specific and streamlined test case that we can reproduce in a few clicks, with EVERYTHING we need to reproduce it: macro, scraper, list of URLs… (Export them and attach the XML files.)

do not hesitate to add screenshots, if necessary (but NOT of your scrapers or macros).

Create ONE support ticket per issue.

do not reply to our answers by creating a new ticket but add a comment to the same ticket (the link to the complete thread of your support ticket is at the top every email you receive. You need to log in to access the thread),

if the issue was solved, please do not add: “Thank you. Oh, by the way, I would also like to know how to…” The ticket content should correspond to its title.

No screenshots of html code, scrapers or macros.

please do not send us screenshots of your scrapers or macros, or describe them in your message, as we would be forced to retype them. Instead, please Export them and attach the XML files (EVERYTHING we need to reproduce: macro, scraper, list of URLs…).

If what you need to show us is not a scraper or an automator: Attach screenshots of your whole screen as jpg or png files

do not include them into MS Word files or other applications,

do not use screencast (unless you really need to send us videos),

do not take partial screenshots. Do not just send a dialog or a section of the screen. We already know our dialogs but what is really interesting is the context: the state of the application when it happened,

when possible, open the log panel when you take the screenshot, for us to see the list of actions that led there,

Subject and Version are required fields.

make sure the title of your ticket is meaningful. Don’t call your ticket “outwit hub” or “I have a question” or “Could you help me?”. If we search for it in the future to add a comment and if the title doesn’t give the topic of your question, we may never find it.

provide the full and precise version number that you are using. Do not enter “current”, “the latest”, “N/A”, “Yes”, “I don’t know”…

if your problem comes after an update, please specify what precise version you had before the update and what version you updated to.

TRY THE ADD-ON

OutWit Hub (Light, Pro or Enterprise) used to come in two guises: the Standalone executable application and the Firefox add-on. If you are having problems running the Standalone, you can still try the other. The first reason is obviously that it will allow you to work without delay; the second is that it will give you access to the Help and FAQ (with troubleshooting information on how to create a blank profile).** Important Notice: Mozilla’s new add-on signing requirements are incompatible with ours and the very purpose of our application. Unfortunately, like many other developers, we had to discontinue to support Firefox add-on versions. At this point, however, it is still possible to install unsigned extensions on FF44 or previous versions, after typing about:config in the address bar and changing the preference named xpinstall.signatures.required to false.

Support is done by the developers themselves: they need to know your needs to make the application a better tool. Unfortunately their time is limited so, please do not write very long descriptions of processes or expect them to analyze the structure of a website. If this is what you need, read how we can create custom scrapers for you here.

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If you want to use OutWit Hub or any or our programs with the Tor browser, you can simply browse to outwit.com with Tor, click on the download link and select the Firefox add-on version in the version menu (bottom item). That’s it.

[Update] Tor 6.0 is now based on Firefox 45. Which means that it has the same signature restrictions and cannot run OutWit extensions. At this point, the only solution is to use Tor Browser 5.5.5.

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You may be installing a build of our program that was signed for a previous OS X version. In this case, once downloaded, double-click on the .dmg file, drag the program to your applications folder. In order to run it, simply ctrl-click on the OutWit application icon and choose open in the contextual menu, then click on open once again.

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Remember that although we put general updates online every 6 to 8 weeks, we upload the latest builds for download much more frequently (usually several times a month). You can always get this update by downloading and opening the OutWit Hub add-on file (OutWit_Pack.xpi) either with Firefox (up to v44) or with the standalone version of OutWit Hub 6.x.Only update the standalone version 6: If you have an earlier version of OutWit Hub Standalone, first upgrade to v6 then do the following.

In either case, it will update the program to its latest version. (Note that downgrading also works with Firefox but not with the standalone version. Opening the xpi file with OutWit Hub Standalone only works if the version you are opening is greater than your current version.)

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The same applies to Email Sourcer: you can also update by downloading and opening the add-on file (Email_Sourcer_Pack.xpi) either with Firefox (up to v44) or with the standalone version of Email Sourcer 6.x.Only update the standalone version 6: If you have an earlier version of Sourcer Standalone, first upgrade to v6 then do the following.